Pont au Double and Hôtel-Dieu
The Pont au Double connects the Parvis Notre-Dame (square) on the Ile de laCité to the Quai de Montebello on the Rive Gauche – Left Bank.
It was built to alleviate traffic on the nearby Petit Pont, which throughout the Middle Ages was used to transport the sick and the poor to the Hôtel Dieu, as it was the only link between the Île de la Cité and the Left Bank. A second bridge thus became essential!
The Hôtel-Dieu was founded in 651 AD and was the oldest hospital in Paris. It comprised two buildings located on the south side of the cathedral square.
It was demolished and rebuilt to the north of the square during Haussmann’s urban renewal projects in the mid-19th century.
A statue of Emperor Charlemagne now stands in its place.
A bridge named after a toll!
A three-arched stone bridge was built in 1643 to transport the sick to the Hôtel-Dieu hospital.
Residents were allowed to use it to alleviate congestion on the Petit Pont. However, they had to pay a toll set at “un double denier pour chacun des hommes de pied et six deniers pour chaque homme de cheval” -” a double denier for each foot soldier and six deniers for each horseman.”
This toll system, which gave the bridge its name, remained in place until the French Revolution.
The Pont au Double collapsed in 1709 and a single-arched masonry bridge was rebuilt in 1848 to improve navigation on the smaller branch of the Seine.
The current 45-m-long single-arch metal Pont au Double replaced it in 1883. It is reserved exclusively for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists, and leads directly to the cathedral.
Metro: Cité or Saint-Michel on Line 4
Coordinates: Lat 48.852598 – Long 2.348449
